Keeping In Touch

Christmas Eve I sent out a flurry of emails and Y360 messages. Warm responses came back over the next day and a half. It's nice to be able to stay in touch like this. And yet...

And yet, I know about half of my learners don't have access to the internet. Short of money and/or social network support, they're out of reach until class resumes and they return. If they return.

I so wish that the internet were more affordable. Like local phone service, it is something our society has decided is important, but will not provide as a free public service. Along with the rising costs of local phone service, the disappearance of publicly accessible payphone booths, and the steady decrease of local postal services, internet provision and services seem to separate us as often as they connect us.

Business provides a bad model for how to run a successful community: business leaders ought not be given the job of governing us all.

Contradictions

For me, the online posting of learner writings contains two contradictions. One has to do with privacy, and the other with effort.

Privacy might seem like an odd concern for a venture where people present their thoughts on a web page any Joe Public can view. Surely, if people want to be private, they should keep their thoughts to themselves. Right?

Actually, I disagree. I think its quite reasonable to publish using a pen-name, or no name at all. In the case of the last project, we decided to go with no names. Instead, we used our (Yahoo) avatars. The avatars, cartoon-like pictures people can customize, allowed the learners to identify or claim their writings without putting more of their identity online. We also declined to name the organizations where the learners were pursuing their goals, and designed the page so that the only out-going link comes here. (Though, in fact, I'm having second thoughts even about that. Maybe I should have put an email address in instead? edit: I went ahead and made the change.)

The other contradiction involves the amount of effort and "face time" the project required. It wasn't simply a case of learners sitting down and typing words onto a web page. In some cases, I had to help learners with keyboard basics. Some learners needed support using tools like spellcheck. A good deal of time was spent talking about complete sentences and verb tense; editing and re-editing ensued. The two poems were the product of about 9 hours of group-work on, and discussion of, poetry.

The computer can be a great tool for learning. Learning about the computer is an increasingly important part of functional literacy. But computers and the internet cannot replace live facilitators and the brick-and-mortar organizations that employ and support them. Creating this very clean, modern, professional-looking web page took lots of messy, old-fashioned literacy work.

Learner Writings Online

After a lot of trial and error with Yahoo's Geocities and Google's Docs and Spreadsheets, we ended up deciding to adapt Google Blogger-Beta for our first online newsletter. The URL is http://adult-literacy-learning.blogspot.com/

We decided to go with the Yahoo avatars as a way to identify authors without putting names, etc., online. In fact, the only external link available goes to this site.

The posts were written by learners with quite different skill sets, goals and contexts. What they had in common was each expressed an interest in learning more about reading and writing online. They all wrote something they can feel proud of. It's a solid start (if I do say so myself!) and I hope to build on it in the new year.

Thks to all who contributed!

Malware Protection

Spyware, adware, tracking software, keystroke loggers, hijackers - all collectively known as "malware" - are fact of life for internet users. In the process of visiting websites, including conservative sites like the BBC or the Washington Post, malware can slip in. Over time, accummulated malware slows down internet performance. Some programs also redirect websearches or cause "pop-up" ads to appear on your screen.


The antidote to malware is one or another program designed to find and remove these bits of software. Among the free programs, the two most popular are probably Lavasoft's Ad-Aware SE Personal 1.06 and Patrick Kolla's SpyBot-Search & Destroy 1.4.

Alright, these are the popular ones, but which one should you choose?

Up until recently, the answer was both. Each program picked up malware the other left behind. But lately, I find myself trusting Spybot more. Adaware may be easier to use (though that's a perception statement), and is certainly faster, running a reduced but effective scan in 5 to 8 minutes compared to Spybot's 20 to 30 minutes searches. Yet, I can't think of a case in the past 6 months when Adaware picked up something Spybot left behind. [Edit: Of course, the next day it happened - still, I stand by my recommendation ;)] If you are only going to use one program, make it Kolla's Spybot 1.4.

But consider downloading them both. They're free, small, easily obtained programs. A handy spot to grab them is the majorgeeks website. You will find Adaware here and Spybot here. (The picture above shows where to go from there: email me if it's still unclear.) The web is teeming with instructions on how to use these programs: like I said, they're popular.

But, a word to the wise: these are not virus protection programs. You will still need your Norton or McAfee or AVG or AntiVir or Avast..... Nor are they firewalls; for that you need Zonealarm or Blackice or.... well, you get the idea. Anti-malware protection is one part of the triune of security measures you need to ensure a safe, satisfying websurfing experience.

Prep and Post

I don't know if this is normal, but I spend about 2 hours a night doing prepping, posting and emailing for the 8 or 10 people I have in my (informal) online learning group. Even so, I've yet to post on my "dark and stormy night" blog. And there's still so much to learn. I'm looking at java-run whiteboards and other message boards you can embed right into your blog space. So much to learn.

Grass Roots Press Activists Series

I have had success using Grass Root Press' Activist Series with a mixed group of learners.

This series of biographies, authored by Terry Barber, are written at reading levels 3 to 5. (They are advertised as R.L. 2, but the names of people and places, as well as some specialized vocabulary, push the level up.) There are 10 books of 45 pages each in the series. They are set in (I think) an 18 pt Times New Roman font, with an illustration on each facing page. The activists featured are a varied lot, including Louis Riel, Mother Teresa, and David Suzuki.

My adult learning group hosts beginning and accomplished readers (ranges, perhaps, 3 to 10). The attraction this series holds for such a diverse group of learners lays in the content. We read the books aloud - usually two each night - each taking a page in turn. We often pause to clarify an issue or find a location on a map.

Individualization appears when we each decide how we want to use the books to further our skills. For example, during the last group, we read Rosa Parks and Harriet Tubman. Afterward, one learner chose to work on spelling and vocabulary. He picked out a few words he had stumbled over when reading, and used them in sentence-writing until he felt comfortable spelling them aloud. Another learner chose to write a short essay on the progress (or lack thereof) of women's rights. She then posted her views on a personal blog site, combining conventional and computer literacy learning. Since I am in the process of puzzling out online networking and communications, I also chose a writing / posting task: this particular effort is my 'homework' as it were.

We will continue to read through the series and, given the up-coming Christmas break, will probably re-read them in the New Year. Where we go from there remains open. However, I am eager to tie the books into a discussion of civic participation (maybe in relation to a federal election campaign?). In any event, the series has proved its worth to me and I can recommend it without reservation.